> I've purchased plenty of music, but the problem is that at least on iOS, the music app will still swap out song/album/info/art, or mismatch them altogether.

I wonder if another app might solve your issues? Certainly my combo of Navidrome + substreamer (on Android) doesn't have any of those issues. My music is tagged and has embedded artwork and the app just uses what's there. Then I just use MusicBrainz Picard to ensure my tags are clean and in good shape.

> My favorite way to support artists I love is to go to their tours and buy their merch, including vinyls that are too cumbersome to actually listen to :D.

This is the way!

>including vinyls that are too cumbersome to actually listen to That’s why you record them and cut the recorded master track into sides (or individual songs but I find it’s more fun to preserve the sides-experience) for listening on the go! I know it sounds ridiculous but it’s almost like this weird form of archiving meditation for me.

That's a common bug. I fixed it and it has stayed fixed. I am pretty sure I followed the recipe here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252329979

iTunes Match still exists.

I use that with Apple Music.

It’s still only $25 per year.

All my obscure old hip hop cds nicely looked after by Apple and available to stream or download anywhere.